


Nothing's Changed For Me (or the one where ianto is a time lord and the doctor is there)

by no_homo_hansen



Category: Doctor Who, Torchwood
Genre: Alive Ianto Jones, Children of Earth Compliant, M/M, Post-Series 03: Children of Earth (Torchwood), Resurrection, Time Lord Ianto Jones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:42:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22687942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/no_homo_hansen/pseuds/no_homo_hansen
Summary: Ianto looked around him, clueless as to his surroundings. He dragged a hand down his face, trying to find even a semblance of focus, trying to remember. His mind was running a million miles a second but he couldn’t complete a single coherent thought. Thousands of flashes through his head and he couldn’t focus on a single one until…Jack.Ianto wakes up after closing the rift supposedly unharmed. The Doctor gets an alert of the readings, but when he arrives he finds a passed out Ianto full of regeneration energy.
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Comments: 17
Kudos: 224





	Nothing's Changed For Me (or the one where ianto is a time lord and the doctor is there)

**Author's Note:**

> its 3am and the only check over this has gotten is being run through grammerly so be kind 
> 
> i have been watching nothing but torchwood for like a week now after getting back into it and doctor who. i am deeply in love with ianto and this is my love letter to him as well as the incredible concept of time lord ianto
> 
> hope you love it!

Ianto looked around him, clueless as to his surroundings. He dragged a hand down his face, trying to find even a semblance of focus, trying to remember. His mind was running a million miles a second but he couldn’t complete a single coherent thought. Thousands of flashes through his head and he couldn’t focus on a single one until…

Jack. 

He remembered Jack, the pub in Wales. ‘The House of the Dead’, the most haunted pub in Wales. His dad, Mrs Wintergreen, everything was coming back to him. She was bringing back ghosts and...he was one of them. He was dead. He couldn’t believe it, he was dead and it was Jack’s fault. He let out a sob. He closed himself into the rift for Jack, the last thing he ever heard him say was “Ianto Jones, I love you.” It was a bittersweet moment, that Ianto had longed for, yearned for. It’s morbidly ironic that it happened as he died for the second and final time. That bloody Torchwood lifespan. 

But, where was he now? He looked around himself, found him facing what he could only describe as a crack. It looked like a crack in a wall but seemed to be in mid-air, as if it was a crack in...reality, maybe? Ianto approached the crack slowly, not quite sure what to expect. He heard a faint singing. The closer he got, the more Ianto felt that this crack had a sort of presence. “Hello?” he asked as he came to the crack. He reached out a hand and barely registered the yellow glow of energy that surrounded it before he collapsed, darkness taking over him. 

-

The Doctor was pacing around his TARDIS. Sighing, he let himself drop in his chair by the console. “I closed them, the final crack closed when I was granted my new regeneration cycle. Why are you telling me one is still open? These readings must be wrong,” he yelled. A loud, disdained hum could be heard from the TARDIS. The Doctor jumped up. “Fine! If you believe these readings to be correct, take me there. Show me the non-existent crack!” He sauntered around the consoles, turning dials and flipping switches before pushing up a lever as the whooshing sound filled the TARDIS signalling the dematerialisation as their journey began. 

It was only a few short minutes before the TARDIS landed. The Doctor looked at the screen. “Wales? You’ve taken me to Wales. Nothing interesting has happened in Wales since the rift was sealed! Not even Captain Jack stayed in Wales. Are you sure this is where the readings led?” He typed at the console and twisted a few dials before returning to the screen. He sighed. “I suppose you’re right. The readings are at their strongest at this location. I suppose I’ll go have a look,” he relented. The TARDIS let out an almost smug hum. “Oh do shut up.” As he walked out the TARDIS, three things caught his attention: The tingling in the air of rift activity, the ruins of what looks like a very old pub, and the body of a young man lying in front of said ruins. The Doctor ran over to the body, dragging him over by his arm trying to get a good look at his face. “Now I haven’t seen you for a while.” he lightly tapped the man’s face trying to wake him up. As his eyes fluttered open, the Doctor grinned. “Welcome back, Ianto Jones.”

-

Ianto felt a hand tapping his face, he strived to grip consciousness and willed his eyes open trying desperately to focus them. He heard an unfamiliar Scottish accent speaking to him. “Welcome back, Ianto Jones.” He gazed up and saw an older man gazing down at him with a wicked grin across his face. 

Ianto pushed himself up slowly, his muscles screaming at him. “Do I know you?” He wiped his eyes as he sat, trying to level his level and knock the dizziness out of his mind. He felt strange like the world was spinning beneath him, it was as if he could feel his blood running through his veins. His heart was beating way too fast, almost double the time. He looked up at the old man again before looking behind him and catching a look at the blue box behind him. At the sight of the TARDIS, all the air left his lungs. He felt a pull to the box and it wasn’t until he heard the old man speak again he realised he was crying. 

He looked up at the puzzled looking man. “Ianto, I’m the Doctor. I’ve changed a wee bit since we last met.” Ianto scoffed, that was an understatement. “Are you okay? You seem a wee bit emotional. Come with me, we’ll get you in the TARDIS and check you over.” He grasped the hand the Doctor offered him and let him help pull him to his feet. 

He dried his eyes as the Doctor escorted him into the TARDIS and held in his surprise at the massive interior. He had seen his fair share of bizarre and terrifying alien technology to not be shocked at a little bit of dimension altering gear. He realised the Doctor was looking at him expectantly. He raised an eyebrow and glanced around. “It’s, uh...a nice ship you’ve got here.”

The Doctor’s grin dropped. “Nice? You walk into a spaceship that’s multitudes bigger on the inside and the best thing you can say is ‘nice’? Bloody Torchwood.” He didn’t miss how Ianto flinched at the mention of Torchwood. With the closure of his branch, it must be a sore subject. “Now, can I ask what you were doing lying in the middle of the Welsh wilderness next to the ruin of a pub? Only I was getting some strange readings on the TARDIS computer and I’m wondering if you’re the cause.” 

Ianto blinked. “Ruins of a welsh pub?” He rushed to the door and pulled it open, finally getting a good look of where he was. He stumbled backwards, practically running to the chair by the console to sit down and get his bearings. “The House of the Dead. The most haunted pub in Wales, built on converging ley lines, inside an old stone circle and on top of a crack in the rift. They were kind of asking for trouble there.” Ianto raised a shaking hand and scratched the back of his neck before loosening his tie. "That’s where I died, well, the second time.” That made the Doctor stop in his pacing. 

He rushed to kneel in front of Ianto. “Wait, wait, wait. Ianto, did you just say you died? Twice? What happened to you that you’re here now? How are you not still dead?” 

Ianto sighed. “First time I was brought back by some medium psychic lady. She had been seduced by an entity called Syriath, convinced if she brought her forth and gave her some good ol’ humans to feed on then she could get her baby back who had died decades earlier. She had advertised a seance on the closing night of this pub for everyone to speak to their family members, but it was a trap for Syriath to feed on them. Jack came to stop her, but Syriarth brought me back to tempt him. Even offered for both of us to escape together, said she had brought me back for good. But it was just a trap, I sent Jack away and sacrificed myself a final time to close the rift forever.” Ianto stopped and took a shaking breath, the memory so recent, so raw he couldn’t continue. “But then I woke up. I woke up, looked around and saw this crack.” Ianto didn’t hear the Doctor’s light gasp. “This crack that seemed to be floating in mid-air. I walked over, touched it and passed out. Then you found me.” He looked up and saw a terrified expression on the Doctor’s face. “Doctor? What is it? Do you know what the crack was?” 

Before he could say anything else, the Doctor ran and started typing frantically before pulling out a pair of sunglasses. He put them on and a sonic buzzing was heard as the Doctor scanned Ianto. He froze and tore them off. He stared at Ianto as if he had seen a ghost. “Ianto, when you touched the crack, did you hear anything? Did you see anything before you passed out?” 

Ianto’s eyebrows furrowed. “Yeah, I think so. I heard some sort of soft singing, almost ethereal. And then I think there was some yellow or golden light but that’s all I can remember.” The Doctor brought a hand to his brow, shaking slightly. “Doctor, what is it? What was it that came from the crack? Is it the rift?” His voice grew panicked at the thought of the rift opening again, with no Torchwood to protect it. 

The Doctor looked at Ianto. “Ianto, what do you remember?” Ianto raised his eyebrow. “Do you have any memories that may not be your own? Do you feel...different than you used to?” He hesitated for a moment. “Did you ever own a fob watch?” 

Ianto couldn’t stop the slight chuckle that rose out of his chest. “A fob watch? I owned an old-style stopwatch, similar to the one my dad had left me. But I lost that in the move from London to Cardiff. It would have been buried in my flat somewhere, the entire contents of which is probably sat in a Torchwood facility. Bloody death procedures.” Ianto ran a hand through his hair before getting a rush of dizziness and nausea. The Doctor caught him before he tumbled off the chair. “What’s wrong with me? I feel like the entire world is spinning.”

The Doctor hesitated again before pushing himself and beginning to pace. “Uhm, that will be because it is. And you, Ianto, can feel it. As well as likely being able to remember everything that has ever happened to you.” Ianto looked up at him in confusion before collapsing. As he hit the floor, a wisp of golden light drifted out his mouth. The TARDIS let out a low hum, almost foreboding. The Doctor sighed before responding. “I know, I’ll have to get that fob watch soon or the energy could kill him. God knows how he was brought back to life and filled to the brim with regeneration energy but his human form can’t contain it all. He’s going to burn up.” The Doctor carefully moved Ianto into a sort of recovery position before running around the console inputting his destination. Cardiff. 

-

Gwen sat at her computer, logging an alien artefact she had confiscated from some poor teenager who had no idea what he was dealing with when the Rift alarm went off. She sighed and checked the readings. Running the entire place on her own was difficult and she was counting the hours until she could get home to Anwen before the bloody alarm went off. Her eyes widened as she realised what the readings were showing, before pulling up CCTV of the bay and seeing a very familiar, if not much nicer looking, blue box. She grabbed her keys and practically sprinted out. It seemed like seconds before she was face to face with the box, about to bang the door before it swung open and she came face to face with a very angry looking old man. “Gwen! Lovely to see you, I need your help.” 

Before she could even react, he stepped to the side and she saw an unconscious but breathing Ianto Jones on the floor of the TARDIS. She froze. “I-Ianto?” She rushed past the Doctor and dropped to her knees next to his body. It had been years since she had last seen him, his lifeless body lying on the floor of Thames House. She cradled his head, he didn’t look a day older. “How can he be alive? What happened?” She turned to face the man she could only assume was the Doctor. “What do you need me to do?” There was a steely determined edge to her voice. 

The Doctor stood over them awkwardly, sympathetic to how shocking it must be to see someone you cared so deeply about after years of mourning them. “I need access to Ianto’s belongings. There is something very important that could well save his life. He says it's Torchwood protocol to collect all of their belongings and keep them in some kind of storage facility. I need you to take me to them.” 

Gwen nodded. “There’s a storage place near the bay where we keep everything. I can take you now. But what about Ianto? Will he be okay?” She gazed down at his face, feeling it truly is a miracle that he’s here. She doesn’t let herself think about Jack and how he would react to see him here. There will come a time for him to know after they’ve saved him. 

The Doctor waved his hand flippantly. “He’ll be fine in the TARDIS. Nothing can get in those doors and he will likely stay asleep until we get back. Plus, I’ll tell her to keep him occupied if he does wake up. Now, come on, You’ve got to take me to this storage place.” Gwen didn’t have enough time to question who the Doctor meant when he said ‘she’ as he grabbed her arm and practically dragged her out of the TARDIS and shut the door solidly behind them. 

It didn’t take long for Gwen to get to the storage facility. She smiled softly walking past Suzie’s storage bin, nostalgic about those early days, before a deep pain setting in her chest of all the loss she had experienced since then. They only passed a couple more before stopping in front of Ianto’s. She put the code into the small, weathered keypad and stood back as the metal door rose, revealing an almost depressingly empty container, the most prominent thing inside which was a rack with Ianto’s countless designer suits and a small chest of drawers containing his countless shirts, ties and cufflinks. She strode over to the rack, unzipping the plastic cover they had put over to preserve them and pulled out a sleek Armani suit. “This was always Jack’s favourite. I think it might even be the one he wore on my first day.” Her head snapped up when she heard a quiet sonic buzzing and looked up to see the Doctor wearing a pair of sunglasses with a finger placed on the side, looking intently around the room. “What is it your looking for, Doc?” 

He didn’t look at her as he responded. “A pocket watch, Probably never opened, almost definitely so. Probably really old, likely looks as if it were handed down.” Gwen furrowed her eyebrows before striding over to a box in the corner. She opened it to find a load of pictures and photos. She tried not to linger too long, make herself too sad, before digging to the bottom of the box. 

It took her a second to see it, almost as if it didn’t want to be seen. Nonetheless, she pulled out a fob watch, much heavier than it looked covered in beautiful engravings. “This looks way too old to be one Ianto bought. Is it this one you’re looking for?” 

She didn’t even realise it was gone before the Doctor was halfway out the container, shouting as he went. “Lock this place up and get back to the TARDIS. I’m about to save Ianto Jones!” 

-

He made it back to the TARDIS in what must have been record time. Bursting in the door, he saw a stirring Ianto. He could almost feel the pocket watch vibrating in his hand, buzzing with memories and a whole life ready to come back. He slowly kneeled next to the stirring man. “Ianto, I need you to open this. It will fix everything.” He ignored the confusion of the barely conscious man and helped him into a sitting position before placing the watch into his hand. “Open it.” There was a tense moment until Ianto’s world exploded with colour. 

-

The Archivist had never been a very social man. He had dedicated his previous regenerations to finding out as much information as possible and building a library the entire universe could admire and learn from. On Gallifrey, he had dealt with many of his class at the Academy finding him odd but respecting him nonetheless. He shared their common goal to learn the most about time, whereas they all wanted to sit back and watch, while he wanted to learn. He wasn’t as bad as those young boys who called themselves ‘The Doctor’ or ‘The Master’, made for adventure. He simply wanted to learn things directly from the sources. SO once he left the Academy and spent years learning everything there was to know from Gallifrey and the Matrix, he got into his TARDIS and left. No one bothered to try and stop him. He had never made that big a ripple in their society and those in charge knew he would never be a danger to anyone outside, would never interfere with history or events, simply watch from afar, learning. He had travelled all around the universe, was so far from his home and so detached from his race that as soon as he heard about the Time War, he hid, hid his TARDIS in a sort of hibernation and lived under a perception filter, only moving planets as he needed. However, as the war grew, lasting hundreds of years he realised the only way he could be safe was to hide entirely. Discreetly planning and intercepting a small family in Cardiff, he induced a regeneration, the fear running through his mind and his plan registering in every part of his subconscious, he ended up a small boy. Sighing, he muttered to himself, “Goodbye Xi,” and used the Chameleon Arch in his TARDIS to turn himself human, to learn as grow as a young boy in Cardiff in the 90s, wishing for the best. 

However, even a Chameleon Arch couldn’t stop his brilliant mind and deep love of information, because as soon as he was old enough he was off to London to become a Junior Archivist at Torchwood. Once he got his memories back, the irony was not lost on him. However now, as he remembered who he was, felt the two hearts in his chest, gazed around him, there was only one thought in his head. 

Jack. 

As he sat up, feeling more alive than he maybe ever had, he looked into the eyes that held so much hope, so much pain. “Gwen, it’s so amazing to see you.” Gwen pulled him into a massive hug. “You look so different. How long has it been? How long was I...gone?” 

Gwen frowned and pulled back. “Ianto, it’s 2017. You’ve been dead for 8 years. I’ve got a baby now, with Rhys. Her name is Anwen. You’d love her.” Ianto smiled, pained. Gwen mirrored his expression. “Been through a lot these past years. Some of the things I’ve seen would make even your hairs stand on end.” She rubbed his shoulder before letting her hand drop and grasp his own. “I missed you so much. I...we never forgot you. Not one second.” There was an unspoken moment, the other half of ‘we’ was clear. Suddenly, Gwen chuckled. “You’re a bloody Timelord.” 

Ianto let out a soft chuckled. “I guess I am. It’s mad the things I forgot. Somehow though, I feel I Live more as Ianto than I ever did as Xi. Thanks to Torchwood, to you.” He smiled sincerely, hoping she felt the gravity of his words. He never was a talker. They heard a short cough and turned to see the Doctor standing awkwardly to the side. 

“I hate to break up this reunion, but I need to speak to you, about the fact you died twice and turned out to be a Timelord older than me?” Ianto nodded and dropped Gwen’s hands. They said their goodbyes before Gwen headed back to the new Torchwood hub, leaving Ianto with a threat to phone or she would kill him all over again. The Doctor leaned against the console. “So, Archivist, you are a VERY old Timelord. No one saw you from about halfway through the Time War, assumed you had died in the conflict. 

Ianto sighed and nodded. “I saw how the war was going. I knew the only way it could end was with everyone dying. No one race could win but I wasn’t brave enough to do anything about it. I knew I wouldn’t be the man to end the war and I refused to die in such fighting. So I left, hid under a simple perception filter at first until it became too dangerous. So I became Ianto Jones. Found a family whose young son had just passed and sort of just...stepped in. I had done an abundance of research into what dictates regeneration and managed to regenerate into a similar-aged young boy. After that, it was some simple tricks of the mind and a trip using my Chameleon Arch and I had become Ianto. And I wasn’t joking when I said I had lived more as Ianto than I ever did as ‘The Archivist’,” he said, putting air quotes around his title. “All I ever did was observe to try and learn. Whereas with my life as Ianto, as tragic and utterly painful as it was, I did everything. I got involved, I got my hands dirty. I loved, I lost. It was all so...human. And it was incredible.” He wiped a small tear that had slipped down his face. 

The Doctor placed a hand on his shoulder. “I know what you mean. I dabbled in it once myself. But you need to tell me how you survived dying as Ianto.” He pulled the screen round the console. “You see here, the TARDIS showed me these readings coming from the place I found you, that ruined pub. Now, these are similar, if not identical, to readings I got dozens of times from these cracks in time. However, they closed. I closed them all. They were caused by my TARDIS exploding. But they had closed. So imagine my surprise when I fly the TARDIS to the location they’re coming from a find a human saying he had died twice and seen a crack floating in mid-air.” 

Ianto ran a hand through his hair as he looked at the readings. “These readings are very similar to the Rift through Cardiff. When did you say these closed up? Could it have coincided with the Rift closing?” The Doctor seemed to light up as he started typing frantically finding the closing readings of Ianto's sacrifice at the pub with the readings of the closing crack in Trenzalore. Ianto smiled to himself, proud to have made the connection. “So they didn’t overlap in time, but surely due to the nature of the cracks, the idea of such similar readings isn’t a coincidence. So whether the crack on Trenzalore caused the crack in Wales to close entirely, or such a similar event happening across space and time led to me being brought back? What was it that closed the rift on Trenzalore?” 

The Doctor coughed slightly. “The Time Lords, from what I’ve figured. They used the cracks to contact me, convince me to help them. I was on my final regeneration dying of old age when my companion at the time, Clara, begged them to give me a whole new cycle. And they did, gave me a bunch of new regenerations and then left.” Ianto raised his eyebrow. There was a second of silence before it seemed to dawn on the Doctor. “Which means if they were in control of the crack and could go open it anywhere, they would have sensed the closing of the Rift and could have easily grabbed you as you fell through. But why would they? You were not only dead but human!” 

Ianto scratched his chin. “Maybe because it was simply my soul from my human life, I wasn’t fully dead because I was still connected to my life source in the watch, so as I fell through they realised who I was and tried their best to save me, depositing me right back out. I already had my body, as the psychic and Syriath had already brought me back almost entirely.” He pulled out the fob watch and watched as the second hand ticked round. He then clicked the button at the top again. Nothing happened. He frowned slightly. “Shame, I would have liked it if it was a stopwatch as well.” He shrugged and put it back in his pocket before feeling a pang in his chest. “I need to find Jack.”

The Doctor looked at him incredulously. “Jack Harkness? What do you need him for?” Ianto looked down at the floor avoiding his eye. The Doctor quickly caught on. “Ah, well. If there was ever a person for the immortal to end up with, it’s a Time Lord with at least 10 regenerations left.” Ianto smiled before looking up. 

“I don’t suppose you would be able to help me find my TARDIS. If I gave you the base code and Arkon signature? Only I would very much like to be alone when I find Jack.” He smirked as he saw the Doctor shake his head. After inputting the information, it was shown that Ianto TARDIS was sitting in a park near when he grew up. “Guess I’ll be off. I’ve got a phone in there if you ever need me. I think we Time Lords gotta stick together. Especially as I know there is lots you’re not telling me about the war.” The Doctor looked down, avoiding his eye. “Nonetheless, I’m always here for you, Doctor. Also, I don’t suppose you have a contact for Martha Jones?” 

The Doctor looked up surprised, but smiled, and disappeared down the stairs before running back with a small, silver mobile. “Copy her number off there.” Ianto gave him a deadpan look that could only be interpreted as ‘with what bloody phone?’ before The Doctor tossed him a brand new looking smartphone. “Technologies changed. And you, Ianto, need to catch up.” Ianto managed to quickly figure out how to install the number before throwing the silver mobile back to the Doctor. They said their goodbyes and he strolled out of the TARDIS. 

He was going to find Jack if it killed him. 

-

He smiled as he found the TARDIS. Concealed well, it looked like an ordinary phone box, glass, covered in moss and spray paint and posters for local bands. He smiled and grabbed the handle before pushing it open. The inside felt like a breath of fresh air. Whereas the Doctor’s TARDIS was cold and mechanical, his own looked like a homely living room, the console gracing the centre almost like a fireplace. He had a sneaking suspicion however he would be doing a bit of redecorating. He had grown rather fond of the Torchwood hub. 

He walked around, taking in his TARDIS before flicking a switch on the console. She had been in hibernation for so long, to hear the soft humming as she awoke was music to his ears. She sounded so happy to see him again. “Hello, beautiful.” He strolled around the console, experimentally turning dials and pulling levers before looking at the screen on the console. He pulled out a keyboard tucked inside the console and began typing almost frantically, searching for any big historical events to do with Torchwood and Captain Jack Harkness. He read about Miracle Day, the disbanding of Torchwood and sighed at the disappearance of Jack Harkness. He was very good at making himself disappear, and it had been a very long time since anyone he had cared about had seen him. 

He called Gwen and asked her to check the Torchwood system for any traces of energy from Jack’s vortex manipulator. It may not work for time and space travel but every trick he does leaves a trace. She found tiny spikes in the rift and sent the readings Ianto’s way, but other than that she was very little help, which she apologised deeply for. He told her it was perfectly fine, she had been a great help and told her to give Rhys his best. He sighed and pulled up Martha’s contact. It had been 8 years, she might have changed her number. 

Nonetheless, she picked up. “Martha Jones.” Ianto’s breath shook. “Hello? Who is this?”

Ianto ran a hand through his hair. “Martha, it’s me.” He heard a gasp on the other end of the line. 

“Oh my god, Ianto! Is that you? How are you- I went to your funeral!” Ianto left out a small, pained chuckle. 

“Yeah, I know. I can’t quite explain it all right now, but I promise you I will. However, for now, to summarise everything, I’m a Time Lord. Like the Doctor.” He heard her gasp again and began another whole line of questions before he cut her off. “Martha, I know this is shocking and you have a lot of questions but this is important. Do you have any idea where Jack is?” 

Martha sighed. “I don’t know exactly where he is. When you died, something died in him. He disbanded Torchwood and left, forever. Even after Miracle Day he left again, went off Earth and hasn’t been back since. But...he has been in touch.” Ianto sighed a breath of relief. “Don’t sound too excited, I haven’t said where he was.”

-

Jack was sat at the bar. He isn’t sure how long he’d been there now, wasn't sure how many times he’s been there before. Didn’t know how many people he'd met, talked to, drank with or fucked. Didn’t even know how many times he’s died. Everything blends. It’d been a year, maybe longer, since he’d come face to face with someone he cares about. He remembered he was sitting in this seat, at this bar, the last time he saw the Doctor. Jack wasn’t even sure seeing him could help him now. He was taking a drink when he hears a voice he never thought would hear again. “Planet Vegas? Why would I ever have expected something different?” He froze, gulped and lowered his glass back to the bar. He didn’t turn around as he replied. 

“You aren’t real. You can’t be.”

Jack felt a warm, familiar hand on his shoulder. “I’m real, and I have some explaining to do.” He pauses. “Please look at me.” Jack carefully turned around and locked eyes with Ianto. For a man who never ages, he looked so much older. It was his eyes. Ianto hated how sad those eyes looked. They stared at each for a few short moments before Jack pulled him into a hug. A strong, almost aggressive hug, almost as if he just wanted to check if he was there. Ianto had missed those 51st-century pheromones, which now he was a Time Lord he knew were 100% legit. “I missed you. I love you.”

He felt Jack let out a small sob against him. “Ianto Jones, you have no idea how hard it’s been without you.” He pulled back and looked at him as if he had only just seen him. “How are you back? How are you...alive?” Ianto pursed his lips and guided them to a table, sitting down and motioning for Jack to sit next to him. 

Ianto took a deep breath. “Jack, I need you to believe that this is all pretty new info, found out in the last 4 hours.” Jack looked at him expectantly. “I’m a Time Lord.” Jack’s eyes widened. “I left Gallifrey hundreds of years before the Time War, went around the universe studying, wanting to learn about anything and everything. I never had much attachment to my race so when the Time War started, I hid. I found the Jones’ and used the Chameleon Arch in my TARDIS to become human and slip into their family unit. But even turning myself human couldn’t stop me from learning everything I could about aliens because I joined Torchwood. And died. Through some pretty complex events that I don’t fully understand yet, I was saved. Something helped me just as I closed the rift and deposited me, full of regeneration energy just where I closed it. The Doctor got an alert for the readings and found me lying on the ground outside that tiny little pub in Wales where we said goodbye. He saved me, scanned me and realised what was happening. And found this.” Ianto pulled out the pocket watch. “It’s a biodata module, used to store my Time Lord essence. When the Doctor found it, he made me open it and returned me to my former self. And the first thing I did was come to find you.” He softly placed a hand on Jack’s cheek. They both gazed at each other before Ianto’s eyes dropped to Jack’s mouth. He leaned in slowly, not wanting to overwhelm a very shaken up Jack, and laid a soft kiss on his lips, sweet and innocent but filled with so much emotion.

Ianto wad dizzy. He had never felt so deeply before, even as a Time Lord, but all of his affection from his human life being amplified by his Time Lord brain was almost overwhelming. He pulled back to try and catch his breath, which was immediately torn out of his lungs when he saw the look on Jack’s face. Such a broken man, filled with so much love, who himself had said out of all the people he had lost, he had wanted to see Ianto. _You will never be just a blip in time to me, Ianto._ Ianto smiled softly. “I’ve only regenerated twice, you know? And if I go about things right, each regeneration can last hundreds, if not thousands of years.” He was tempted to leave the words unspoken but Jack beat him to it. 

“And would you want to spend the rest of them with me?” He knew Jack well enough to recognise the insecurity in his tone. He didn’t think he deserved it. “The Doctor could never stay around me, says I was just too wrong to look at. The idea of me being a fixed point was too much for him to be around.” He choked up on the last few words, so terrified that with his new big Time Lord mind that Ianto would never want to look at Jack again. He wasn’t sure he could cope with getting him back just to lose him to his immortality. 

Ianto shook his head rubbing his thumb against Jack’s cheek. “I think he’s looking at it all wrong. From where I’m standing, you aren’t wrong. The universe is revolving around you, converging on you.” He let out a small chuckle. 

“So nothing has changed for me then.”

**Author's Note:**

> i really hope you enjoyed!
> 
> i really love getting commnets and i try to reply to everyone so leave some kudos and a comment if you can!
> 
> thank you so much for reading :)


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